UCSC alum to talk works at event at Bookshop
Writing is a passion of a Santa Cruz author who goes by the pen name yves. (pronounced “eevz-dot” and always stylized with a lowercase “y” and a period).
The transgender UC Santa Cruz graduate has been writing short stories for years, eventually compiling them into a self-published book titled “Something's Not Right” and then republishing an updated version in October produced by German independent publishing company tRaum Books. On top of that, yves. has continued to publish short stories and novellas on their website, often specializing in LGBTQ+ speculative fiction. Their newest novelette — “Band Girls,” which will be released online Saturday — differs by being a more realistic, adults-only work. With so many new works, yves. will have plenty to talk about when they host an author event at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
“I'm doing a bit of a Q&A and talking about the process of both how my writing has changed since (`Something's Not Right') and also what drew me back to the project, what it has been like working on it again, the neverending work of re-editing the book, reformatting it, reworking it and now going through all of the promotional stuff,” they said.
“Something's Not Right” consists of 33 short stories, many of which use supernatural imagery and tropes to symbolize the fear and discrimination those in the LGBTQ+ community experience. Some of the stories include “Don't Feel Guilty,” about a child who increasingly adopts more plants which makes his father nervous; “Blood Orange Tea,” about a vampire who works in a cafe and has to deal with his vampiric nature and bisexual attraction to a girl working the same shift; and “My Parents are Spies,” about a teen who grows angel wings and tries to hide them, but their parents become increasingly suspicious and start talking to teachers and administrators, causing more fear for the teen.
The updated book garnered positive reception on Goodreads and other sites, something yves. is thankful for.
“I'm very grateful,” they said. “It seems like people are recommending it to each other. I found somebody on Tumblr who listed
it as one of their favorite releases of the year, which is really gratifying that apparently it stacks up with everything else that's coming out.”
Additionally, yves. promoted the book in a special event at the Santa Cruz Diversity Center which was also an exciting experience for them.
“There were a lot of writers, and we really got to talk about the struggle of making work that a lot of people just consider unmarketable because you are gay and weird and how to market it and how to make money off of it,” they said.
“Something's Not Right” is not all that yves. will be promoting at the Bookshop Santa Cruz event. They will also discuss their next release, “Band Girls,” which tells the story of two female college students who have their own musical acts and meet after a mishap at the venue both are performing at and have multiple interactions after running into each other by accident over a period that lasts from autumn to New Year's Eve.
The story was written in August as yves. was going through what they called “a depression moment.”
“I was in that mode of `Is this gonna be like this forever?'“they said. “I wanted to write something that would answer that question, at least for me, if nobody else. The thing about writing is that a lot of the time, the solutions that you come up with, they can only be the things that are in your own mind. You can only talk to your own subs conscience for so long, so I ended up writing a piece that was like, `Maybe it's like this forever, but the good news is there's also beautiful women.'”
Specifically, yves. said the story was about how “sometimes you can meet
someone who makes things OK for a little bit at a time, even if it's not OK overall.”
Unlike other works by yves., “Band Girls” has a sexually explicit scene, which meant yves. did not go through the usual publishing process.
“I was just like `I don't know where to pitch this,'” they said. “It's such a complicated market because there are so many markets that will not take anything that has a sex scene or at least one that is in any way titillating.”
Thus, yves. decided to post the story for free on their website, something they had done last year with their other 18-andolder story “Long Line.” They even contemplated putting up a paywall, as they have for larger stories, but decided against it.
“This (type of story) was so difficult for me to find,” they said. “How can I justify making it harder for other people to access?”
One thing yves. hopes to counter with “Band Girls” is the notion that explicit art is not “real art,” which also fueled their desire to write “Long Line.”
“I tend to spend a long time on phrasing and on vocabulary and specific individual weight of each sentence,” they said.
“I found myself thinking, `Why don't I just do that with erotica,' and next time someone says `It doesn't have good writing,' I'll be like `Look at this.'”
Overall, yves. hopes to showcase the diversity of the Santa Cruz art scene, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ artists.
“We have so many queer artists specifically in Santa Cruz,” they said. “I want to see more of us coming out of the woodwork and doing all these various events because it proves what a beautiful space this is, like the whole `Keep Santa Cruz weird' thing. We are extremely, proudly weird and always including explicit queerness. I hope people will get a sense of that community and how much artistic potential there is in this space.”
The free event starts at 7 p.m. Jan. 4 at Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. It will feature a discussion, Q&A and readings of several stories by yves. To register, go to BookshopSantaCruz.com/ yves. “Band Girls” can be read at Yvesdotbooks.com.